Response to Filmmaker Magazine article...

This is a response to filmmaker magazine article and discussion going on at The Workbook Project on VOD deals for indie films... It always irks me when these deals and predictions of a brighter future through certain extremely exclusive outlets are discussed, as if they're something every indie can take advantage of... the bottom line is an IFC deal or CableVOD deal is not a reality for most indies... so much more productive to discuss how to exploit available models Anyways, here's the post:

We do NOT have a cable VOD deal, our VOD is all online, and the percentages are much better than what you outlined. On the other side, a cable VOD deal looks better especially with IFC’s name attached. That’s the trade-off for indies- you (currently) have to take shitty deals for exposure.

IFC’s 15K “digitization fee” is brilliantly titled. Assuming the filmmaker sends IFC the requested deliverables, you’re just paying for the privilege of having cable VOD and using IFC’s name (ie: not for “digitization” of anything). But there’s not an alternative (that we’ve found).

Filmmakers, if they’re smart, can use that to their advantage though, and treat the cable release as advertising for DVD sales, theatrical runs, etc. It’s a model a lot of people are talking about now, using release avenues with weak percentages to promote more traditional release avenues.

Just one example- our Hulu release, where anyone can watch for free, is helping DVD sales and ticket sales on our ongoing theatrical run, though the actual streaming does not return a huge percentage per viewer.

This is just my take, but the IFC model isn’t really a helpful discussion because the vast majority of indies will never have to decide if that’s a good deal or not. The average indie doesn’t get into Sundance, doesn’t get attention form IFC, etc… and focusing on these models can distract from preparing a competent or hopefully sophisticated strategy for release, using all the available tools.

We go through IndieFlix, who takes 30% flat. For that we have good real estate on AmazonVOD, Hulu, and iTunes, and soon in some brick and mortar stores and RedBox. Because of their relationship with these companies (and because the companies often look for seasonal or themed promotions), we’ve been featured on the front page of these outlets at different times, driving very good traffic. For us it’s been worth the 30% fee. After the digital outlets take their cut, we walk with 20%-30%. I’ll take that over 6% any day. I wouldn’t mind IFC-level exposure, but I’m a lot more inspired by 25%.

iTunes and cableVOD outlets are still more exclusive: iTunes charges $700-$1000 to place a film on its site. Depending who you go through (we use Tunecore) this includes encoding to their specs. It’s complicated, but for 700-1000 you can be on iTunes in two-three months. So, still huge barriers to entry: money and time. Clearly it’s worse with cable.

If the cost of delivering digital content drops by 50% every year (which is what we’ve heard over and over again), then the cost to filmmakers should drop as well. However, outlets and aggregators have a strong, strong hand because they control so much traffic, that they will be able to squeeze indies for many years to come. iTunes should drop their fees and bring on a lot more content, but it seems like they’ve deemed that bad business for them, for some reason.

IFC knows it’s name and access is worth quite a bit. If filmmakers want to circumvent weak deals like that (and often a deal like that isn’t even on the table), the solution is sort of simple. You have to get really good at driving your own audience to your film. The actual cost of delivering your film to an audience is cheap, and it does drop every year, especially if you: release digitally; prepare for audience building with lots of free content; and devote time and energy to a long release window. I think this would be a much, much better focal point for the average indie.

I could go on and on, but I wanted to jump in and hopefully steer the average indie away from worrying about IFC and cableVOD, when the reality is going to be AmazonVOD, Hulu, iTunes, Joost, etc. for soooo many filmmakers.